UPA government a curse for common man, says Advani

Bangalore, Sep 14 (IANS) The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has become a curse for the country and the common man in whose name it claims to have come to power, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani said here Sunday.Addressing the valedictory function of the BJP’s three-day national executive meeting, Advani told about 200 party delegates that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was solely responsible for the “mega failure” in the fight against price rise and terrorism, “the mega scandal resulting in cash-for-votes during the trust vote in the Lok Sabha July 22″ and “the mega fraud” through the India-US civilian nuclear deal.

“Manmohan Singh’s spineless government has lost all legitimacy to continue in office even for a day longer. It must quit immediately, paving the way for fresh parliamentary elections so that the people can elect a new government that has the determination and ability to address the grave challenges facing the nation,” Advani asserted.

Describing the havoc wreaked by flood waters in Bihar as a national calamity of tsunamic proportions, the opposition leader in Lok Sabha said the affected people in millions were not looking merely for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction but an effective prevention.

“If the people give the NDA (BJP-led National Democratic Alliance) their mandate to form the next government in New Delhi, we shall begin work on a comprehensive, long-term flood-control strategy. Wherever feasible, we shall also integrate the flood-prevention and drought-prevention strategies by reviving the (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee government’s river-linking project, which the UPA government has callously abandoned,” Advani affirmed.

Accusing the Congress-led UPA government of betraying ‘aam aadmi’ or the common man and farmers, Advani regretted that Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were living in a make-believe world or they think the people were fools to believe them when they claim their government has fulfilled all the promises made under the alliance’s common minimum programme (CMP).

“What can one say about a government that is taking pride in the growing misery of the poor and middle class families due to its failure to control price rise. As far as aam aadmi is concerned, the burden of the unprecedented price rise is the single most important reason for his wanting to vote out this government,” Advani pointed out.

The government’s failure to check inflation is taking a heavy toll and economic growth is slowing leading to job opportunities shrinking to bright young people, he said.

The housing boom for the middle classes initiated by the NDA government (1999-2005) policies has come to a halt, Advani said, adding that the rising interest rate was hurting every sector of economy, especially small and medium enterprise.

“Similarly, the centre’s much-trumpeted loan waiver for small and marginal farmers has proved to be a propaganda gimmick, an ineffective medicine to cure a deep-rooted and systemic malady afflicting Indian agriculture,” Advani noted.

Assuring people of taking expeditious steps to reverse the slowdown in economy, Advani sought to redefine what GDP (gross domestic production) stood for by coining G for good governance, D for development for all and P for protection of the country and the common man.